This article demonstrates how behavioural economics (BE) is being employed to improve public and business policies. View Summary

This article demonstrates how behavioural economics (BE) is being employed to improve public and business policies.

BE is moving beyond academia into real world scenarios where its concepts are being tested and perfected amongst a wider demographic.

Governments in US, UK and Australia are using robust experiments in the form of Randomised Controlled Trials, seeing success in areas including tax and debt collection, energy savings, pensions enrolment, charitable giving and encouraging job seekers back to work.

Businesses and public bodies are also applying BE insights across a range of areas, including brands such as Allianz, Unilever, Barclays, Diageo, Opower and eBay.

Allianz devised a toolkit that assesses how effective employer pension schemes are from a behavioural finance perspective.

3

Bringing a brand promise to a commodity market

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Mark Evans, Market Leader, Quarter 2, 2015, pp. 57-57

This article argues that the adoption of a service-led brand proposition is transforming the insurance business. View Summary

This article argues that the adoption of a service-led brand proposition is transforming the insurance business.

The insurance sector had reached a critical point where price had become the differentiator, not the insurance itself.

The launch of First Direct's brand proposition saw an integrated campaign across TV, cinema, print and online that would put customers at the heart of the business.

The renewed emphasis on service helped the brand build stronger relationships with customers and differentiate itself from competitors heavily focused on price comparison.

4

SME Finance: How to revolutionise a moribund market

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Laura Mazur, Market Leader, Quarter 2, 2015, pp. 12-13

This article looks at the ambitious plans of some finance companies to change the landscape of SME lending through a combination of marketing and technology. View Summary

This article looks at the ambitious plans of some finance companies to change the landscape of SME lending through a combination of marketing and technology.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) collectively account for up to 99.9% of all private sector business, but the difficulties they have with getting financial support have been well-documented.

The SME lending market is ripe for radical transformation with its value having been conservatively estimated at anywhere from £100 to £150 billion.

Inspired Capital is given as an example of a finance company with ambitions to become a market leader over the next five to eight years, by focusing on smart marketing and a customer-centric approach.

5

Wells Fargo builds total-market insights

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Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Brand Masters, February 2015

This event report details how Wells Fargo, the financial-services group, is shifting its marketing strategy in line with changing demographics across the US. View Summary

This event report details how Wells Fargo, the financial-services group, is shifting its marketing strategy in line with changing demographics across the US.

Projections show that groups previously defined as "minority" audiences are set to make up the majority of the American population in around 30 years' time.

To stay ahead of changing market conditions, Wells Fargo is striking a subtle balance between total-market messaging and communications for specific groups.

Alongside focusing on inclusion, multiculturalism and ethnic sensibility, the firm believes that various "universal truths" should underpin its marketing output.

6

Banco Santander (Financial)

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Euromonitor Profiles, February 2015

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Banco Santander, the owner of brands such as Abbey and Alliance and Leicester. View Summary

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Banco Santander, the owner of brands such as Abbey and Alliance and Leicester. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the Spanish company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the financial services market. Brand opportunities and strategy are identified and recommendations for the future offered.

This article examines why people are not saving enough for retirement and behavioural economics can encourage people to save towards their retirement earlier in working life and become more engaged in the process. View Summary

This article examines why people are not saving enough for retirement and behavioural economics can encourage people to save towards their retirement earlier in working life and become more engaged in the process.

Psychological barriers to saving for retirement are that most people tend towards being optimistic, carefree and procrastinatory, tend to discount the future and live for the present, struggle to imagine their future selves and some are not predisposed towards saving and planning.

Tools that are overcoming saving barriers include government regulation to auto-enrol people into a workplace pension, implementing auto-consolidation of multiple pensions, asking employees to pre-commit to increasing contributions automatically on the advent of their next pay rise, priming people with new reference points, and reframing retirement.

By changing the language used around pension payments, contributions can be reframed as "paying yourself" rather than "paying the pension", and can help avoid the illusion of wealth, by communicating how much the pension would equate as projected monthly income, rather than a lump sum.

This article explains why people are poor at saving money and suggests four applications of behavioural science that brands are using to help people to save more. View Summary

This article explains why people are poor at saving money and suggests four applications of behavioural science that brands are using to help people to save more.

The proportion of income that is saved in the UK peaked in 1979, at an average of 14%, and since then rates have fallen dramatically - as low as 2% in 2008, rising to 5% in 2013; the US has also averaged 5% savings over the past 6 years.

Barriers to saving are the increased ease of spending and finite resources of self-control, genetic or learned disposition towards better self-control, feeling the pain of spending more acutely, having different motivations for saving or in-built (over-)optimism about the future.

Four ways to save more and more successfully: earmarking and partitioning savings, building a savings habit with regular triggers and small steps, improving saving through use of simple rules of thumb, and reframing saving.

Examples of cognitive biases that get in the way of good money management include poor mental accounting facilities, the use of cards instead of cash to make spending less visible, the 'power of now' that discounts future pain, and inertia around switching current accounts.

Steps that help consumers stay in credit include current accounts that don't provide overdrafts at all and online forecasting that provides automatic feedback to customers about the state of their balance.

Financial providers are helping consumers with their mental accounting by splitting customers' money into virtual accounts to organise their money and ensure there is enough to pay bills.

13

How E*TRADE became a data-centric marketer

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Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Ad Age Data, October 2014

This event report breaks down how E*TRADE, the online brokerage, has put data at the heart of its marketing efforts. View Summary

This event report breaks down how E*TRADE, the online brokerage, has put data at the heart of its marketing efforts.

As a first step, the firm conducted a data "inventory" to understand precisely which information was available internally, and who used it.

By enhancing its media mix modelling, the company gained a greater understanding of the impact of its current and projected expenditure.

Involving other departments in its data processes helped build its knowledge bank as well as attracting valuable "disciples" throughout the organisation.

Creating dynamic processes that can be adapted as E*TRADE's needs change is essential to the long-term success of its data program.

14

China UnionPay (Financial)

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Euromonitor Profiles, January 2015

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of China UnionPay. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the Chinese company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the financial services market. View Summary

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of China UnionPay. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the Chinese company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the financial services market. Brand opportunities and strategy are identified and recommendations for the future offered.

15

Collaboration, innovation and disruption: How Unilever, Google and ingenie are resetting the marketing agenda

This article demonstrates how cognitive biases and heuristics impact human responses by using the example of the UK public's response towards the weather seen during the winter of 2013/14. View Summary

This article demonstrates how cognitive biases and heuristics impact human responses by using the example of the UK public's response towards the weather seen during the winter of 2013/14.

Three biases are availability bias - I can imagine this happening so it must be more likely; optimism bias - always look on the bright side; and gambler's fallacy - we must be due some good weather now? While susceptibility to these biases can lead to irrational behaviour, they can also spur us into action.

Examples of organisations using behavioural science to prompt effective action include vivid tornado warnings in the US, more salient flood warnings in the UK, and taking improved preparations against extreme weather in Australia.

18

Repositioning Bank of America: From Main Street and Wall Street to Capitol Hill

This event report shows how Bank of America embarked on a transformative repositioning effort by tapping into the expertise of a diverse range of stakeholders, from politicians and community leaders to employees at all levels of its organisation. View Summary

This event report shows how Bank of America embarked on a transformative repositioning effort by tapping into the expertise of a diverse range of stakeholders, from politicians and community leaders to employees at all levels of its organisation.

Due to the economic crisis, the firm was seeking to transform its operations, and ensure that consumers, investors, social groups and policymakers could buy in to its new mission.

The firm's refreshed tagline, "Life's better when we're connected", served as the driving force behind its shift in focus, and united the previously disparate aspects of its portfolio.

Consulting further experts such as think tanks, academics and religious leaders - and formalising this process on an on-going basis - will help the company retain its focus going forwards.

19

Innovating with data: How DBS Bank is learning to become 'un-bank like'

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Low Lai Chow, Event Reports, Asia's Customer Festival, October 2014

This event report explains how DBS, the bank, is using data analytics and taking inspiration from other industries to innovate and grow in Asia. View Summary

This event report explains how DBS, the bank, is using data analytics and taking inspiration from other industries to innovate and grow in Asia.

As the bank's competition widens to include e-commerce companies, it is adopting 'un-bank-like' practices and approaches, focussing on customer needs to improve service.

This includes acting like an e-commerce company by collecting and using data, and encouraging consumers to share even more data - and making use of IBM's cognitive technology to build information into insight.

DBS has implemented several programmes to help it think more like a start-up, including 'human-centred design', 'Dragons' Den' style idea pitching and using more experimentation.

Three key trends in technology have grabbed the company's attention: wearables, the internet of things and digital intelligence.

20

A "delicate balance": Visa connects social media with its brand mission

This article explains how Barclays, the bank, has developed a new framework to measure sponsorship performance against a range of business objectives. View Summary

This article explains how Barclays, the bank, has developed a new framework to measure sponsorship performance against a range of business objectives.

Evaluation of sponsorship has been too subjective, or else limited to measures such as ROI, Return on Objective or Advertising Value Equivalency, but these do not capture the full impact of sponsorship deals.

Measurement should be based on business goals, which could include driving sales or brand awareness, but may also include repositioning the brand, increasing employee engagement or a range of other objectives.

Barclays' framework allows the company to track how sponsorship is feeding its broader business objectives, identifying which deals contribute to which goals.

An important part of understanding the effectiveness of sponsorship is finding where it is under performing or is underutilised, deciding the brand's future sponsorship strategy.

23

The trust transaction: How content can transform the way banks connect with people

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Research on Warc, Newscred, October 2014

This report argues that banking brands should use content marketing to help build trust in the UK, but it will only work if they deliver useful, high quality and easy to understand content. View Summary

This report argues that banking brands should use content marketing to help build trust in the UK, but it will only work if they deliver useful, high quality and easy to understand content.

Britain's recession in 2008/9 was widely perceived to be caused by banks, with the whole industry cast as villains and economic growth not improving this poor opinion.

There is low trust in the industry overall, but a few challenger brands attract higher levels of trust by taking a more transparent approach.

Useful content is one important way that banking brands can start to rebuild trust with consumers, but it requires high quality content produced by specially recruited editorial teams.